Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris join "Rio"

Jay A. Fernandez

2 Min Read

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris and Rodrigo Santoro are negotiating to lend their voices to “Rio,” the next collaboration between Blue Sky Studios, Fox Animation and director Carlos Saldanha, all of whom are riding the $882 million global tsunami of “Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs.”

“Rio,” which follows the adventures of a nerdy macaw who lights out from his small-town Minnesota cage for the exotic Summer Olympic city of Rio de Janeiro, is scheduled for an April 8, 2011, release. Like “Dinosaurs,” it will be filmed in 3D digital animation.

Hathaway and Harris have done animation before. Hathaway voiced the lead role of Red in the Weinstein Co. release “Hoodwinked!” in 2005, and Harris voiced a character in Sony Pictures Animation’s “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.”

Fox would not confirm casting.

With the three “Ice Age” movies, “Horton” and “Robots,” Blue Sky and Fox have generated $2.4 billion in worldwide grosses since 2002. The Brazilian-born Saldanha, who has been developing “Rio” for years, has had a hand in all of them except “Horton.”

Hathaway most recently starred in “Bride Wars.” She next appears in “Valentine’s Day” and as the White Queen in Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.”

Harris recently hosted the Emmys and continues to star on the CBS comedy “How I Met Your Mother.” He next stars in the CBS Films release “Beastly,” hitting theaters in July.

Santoro has starred in “Post Grad,” “Che,” “Redbelt” and “300.” He next appears in “There Be Dragons,” directed by Roland Joffe.